The present disclosure generally relates to an airflow directing member for a vehicle engine compartment, and more particularly relates to an airflow directing member for a vehicle engine compartment which is secured to a member between a vehicle bumper beam and a vehicle radiator.
During operation, certain vehicle components, such as an engine of the vehicle, may generate heat and need to be cooled. Conventionally, the vehicle engine is cooled using a vehicle radiator. To provide airflow to the radiator, the vehicle may be equipped with ram airflow openings which allow for ram airflow to enter the vehicle engine compartment and direct airflow to the radiator.
The use of ram airflow takes advantage of the vehicle's motion during driving to facilitate cooling of the vehicle engine components. In this regard, the vehicle ram airflow openings may be positioned on the vehicle to receive an airflow directed toward and impacting the vehicle while the vehicle is in motion (the ram airflow), and may introduce the ram airflow into the vehicle engine compartment. The ram airflow may be directed at a relatively high rate of speed proportional to a speed of movement of the vehicle, and can facilitate cooling of the vehicle engine components due to the cooling effect of the relatively high-speed airflow.
However, the vehicle engine compartment may not be configured or arranged to fully take advantage of the ram airflow cooling effect due to a lack of an optimized aerodynamic and/or airflow directing design within the vehicle engine compartment. Particularly, the vehicle engine compartment may include areas or regions along one or more ram airflow paths which may be susceptible to becoming low pressure areas or regions. These low pressure areas or regions may allow or encourage ram airflow to leak from the ram airflow path or to recirculate within the vehicle engine compartment, thereby reducing the efficiency of cooling by the introduced ram airflow. Moreover, even if some manner of ram airflow direction is provided in the vehicle engine compartment, the mechanism for ram airflow direction may not be optimally positioned or configured to reduce or eliminate the problematic low pressure areas or regions.